Fedde's two-seamer grounds Mets (Nats win 6-0)

NATIONALS QUICK WRAP

Score: Nationals 6, Mets 0

Recap: Making his first Grapefruit League start, Erick Fedde threw three shutout innings, allowing just one hit. ... Michael A. Taylor went 2-for-3 with two runs scored. ... Five different Nats drove in runs.

Need to know: After struggling in his past two relief outings, right-hander Vance Worley threw two innings of one-hit ball. He lowered his ERA to 5.63.

On deck: Sunday vs. Tigers at West Palm Beach, 1:05 p.m. on MASN

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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - Erick Fedde kept getting the Mets to beat the ball into the ground, and by the end of three innings in his first Grapefruit League start, the promising right-hander had recorded six of the nine outs he got on ground balls using his two-seamer effectively.

"Really happy with the day, with the result," Fedde said. "There are still some things I want to work on. I fell behind in a lot of counts. But with a result like that, it's hard to be upset."

Fedde allowed only one hit and one walk, throwing 32 of his 55 pitches for strikes. He walked one and struck out one, and saved his best work for his last inning.

After fanning Wuilmer Becerra to open the third, Fedde walked Matt Reynolds and served up a well-placed single to Curtis Granderson, who slapped a ball an unoccupied third base in an exaggerated shift. With runners at the corners and his pitch count mounting, Fedde got Neil Walker to hit a comebacker to the mound and started an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play.

"I feel like this is one of my first real chances to go out and start against a team with a lot of their (regular) guys playing," Fedde said. "To get into a jam and get out of it, I was excited. It felt good to prove myself a little bit."

Fedde admitted there were some butterflies.

"But after that first pitch, and you realize it's the same game, I settled in pretty nicely," he said.

The Nationals took a 1-0 lead in the first when Michael A. Taylor led off with a double to left and moved to third when Yoenis Céspedes couldn't field it cleanly. With one out, Brian Goodwin plated Taylor on a sacrifice fly to left.

In the sixth, the Nats strung together four straight singles and used a José Lobaton sac fly to take a 4-0 lead. Chris Heisey and Clint Robinson had RBI singles.